Shipping container or freight car body section



y 1932- *G. R. MEYERCORD ET AL SHIPPING CONTAINER OR FREIGHT CAR BODY SECTION Filed April 16, 1931 3 Sheets-Sheet l M y 10, 1932- e. R. MEYERCORD ET AL 1,857,653

SHIPPING CONTAINER OR FREIGHT CAR BODY SECTION Filed April 16, 1931' 3 Sheets-:Sheet 2 WWW y May 10, 1932. e. R. MEYERCORD ET AL 1,357,653

SHIPPING CONTAINER 0R FRE IGBT CAR BODY SECTION Filed April 16. 1931 3 Sheets-$heet 3 Patented May 10, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GEORGE R. MEYERGORD AND OLIN H. BASQUIN, OF OHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNORS TO HASKELITE MANUFACTURING CORPORATION, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK snirrme CONTAINER on FREIGHT can BODY snc'rron Application filed April 16,

A considerable part of the freight that is shipped in closed-freight cars is in less than carload lots. \Vhere such goods are shipped in ordinary freight cars, there are involved problems so serious that'it was long ago proposed to make car bodies in sections, each of which may contain'quantities of less than carload lots, all intended for the same destination. This idea has not been used at all generally, even though there is great need for something of this kind.

The object of the present invention is to produce a sectional car body which shall be of simple, rugged and durable construction,

provide a maximum storage space for goods to be shipped, permit transportation thereof on ordinary flat cars without requiring material changes to be made in the latter, and be composed of units each of which may easily be removed from the car to trucks or the like for transportation to a loading or an unloading point; thereby adapting itself to efficient and convenient shipment in less than carload lots of all goods that can be housed insuch individual car body sections or container.

In carrying out our invention, we form large containers or boxes, each preferably approaching in length the width of an ordinary flat car, and as high and wide as de-' sired, but not so high or wide as to prevent ready transportation thereof through city streets. These containers may be placed side by side, crosswise of a flat car,- so as to form a sectional box car body, and they may be temporarily held in place by suitable detachable fastenings, or not, as may be desired. When they are loaded, the individual sections or units rest directly on the floor of the car and, because of the size and weight of the units, the friction between their bottoms and the car will hold the units firmly 1n place. Heretofore, where individual units of a sectional car body-have been removable. it has been necessary to employ cranes or other powerful hoisting machinery to handle them; or, 'n some instances, each unit or section has befii mounted on a truck that permits it to be lowered and be self-supporting.

When the containers are mounted on trucks,

considerable storage space is wasted, because fore, leaving available a -maximum storage 1931. Serial No. 530,510.

the actual bottom walls of the containers must stand high above the floor of the car, even when the containers rest directly on the car. Furthermore, where sup-porting trucks are employed, the bottom walls of the containers can never rest on a flat surface, but the entire weight of the containers and their contents must at all titres be borne from a few diswhich may transmitthe load, over their entire areas if desired, directly to the floor or bed of the car. The containers may, therefore, be comparatively light. The rolling supports for our containersare small and compact devices mounted in small rugged housings built into the bottoms of the containers and taking upvery little room {therespace for goods within the containers. These. rolling supports are disappearing, in the sense that they may be brought into idle po-' sitions withintheir housings and thus permit the contairgars to rest on their own bottomson the cars or wherever they {may happen. to be; but, when it is desired to; move a container, it is jacked up, as it were, so as to transfer its weight and the weight of its contents to the rolling supports. If it be on a car, the container need only be rolled off onto a truck brought alongside the car: There are available trucks with lifting and tilting platforms. When such a truck is run beside a car and its platform inclined slightly, a container may easily be rolled from the car upon the same; After being transferred-to the truck, the container may be lowered, so as again to rest on its own bottom, or'it maybe lowered at one end only and be permitted to rest on its rolling supports at the other end. By meansof the truck, the container may be carried to its final destination. Such acontainer may be filled in a warehouse, or elsewhere, and be broughtto 100 verse dimension of the car. Under the congrammatic, of the top of a flat car, looking I at one end, having thereon one of our improved containers in the lowered and raised positions, respectively; Fig. 3 is a view show-.

ing diagrammatically thetiltable and vertically-movable top of a truck upon which has been rolled the container shown in,Fig.' 2, the container being indicated in dotted lines; Figs. 4 and 5 are, respectively, side and plan elevations at one end of the flat car top, showing two of the containers positioned thereon; Fig. 6 is a horizontal section, through one of our improved containers, looking downward; Fig. 7 is a section, on an enlarged scale, taken approximately on line 7-7 of Fig. 6; Fig. 8 is a section on line 88 .of Fig. 6, the scale being the same as that of Fig. 7 Figs. 9 and 10 are views similar to Figs. 7 and 8, respectively, showing a modification; Fig. 11'is a section on line 1111 of Fig. 10, the body rtion of the container being omitted; and

Fig. 12 is a diagrammatic view showing a modified arrangement for raising and lowering the containers.

- Referring to Figs. 1-5of the drawings, A

represents a tall, box-like container, short enough to permit it to be transported while extending transversely across the topB of a flat car, and long enough to permit a maximum use to be made of the available transtainer are a series of wheels 1, or other rolling supports, shown as being placed at the corners. The container is mounted on these wheels in such a manner that it may be raised and lowered bodily between a position in which its bottom wall rests on the car top or other surface, as shown in Fig. 1, and a position, as shown in Fig. 2, in which the weight is borne by the wheels, and the container may, therefore, be rolled from one place to another. One way of removing a con-tainer from the car is to run alongside .of the car a truck having tiltable top 0. If t wardl somewhat, the container can easily be rol ed upon the same from the car. The container may then be lowered bodily on the wheels so as to rest at its base on the truck, or one end ma be lowered, as shown in Fig. 3, while the ot er end remains up. The con tainers may have doors in one or both ends, so that access to the interior may be had from one or both sides of the car, such a door being shown at D, in Fig. 4.

a vertically-movable, is top is inclined down-' whereas angle irons 5, 5 are tted over the outer corners at. the bottom; these. latter angle irons extending throughout the length and width of the container. Vertical angle irons 6, 6 are placed in-the four corners between the vertical walls. zontal flanges of the angle irons 5, 5 lie underneath the bottom wall of the container, as shown-,strips, such as show at 3a, should be secured to the under side of the bottom wall so as to bring the effective under surface of the i latterflush with'the under faces of these flanges. In any event, it is the effective under surface of the bottom wall itself, no matter how it is produced, that constitutes the normal supporting base for the container. In this way, we produce a construction that is strong and rugged and yet is comparatively light.

In the arrangement shown, there are four rollers mounted so as to be movable into and out of small, rugged housings 7, 7 of which there is one fixed in each cornerat the bottom of the container. The floor is cut away to pro- In the angles between the bottom When the horivide openings in which the housings set while engaged with the two adjacent vertical walls of the container. Each housing has at the bottom outwardly projecting flanges 8 and 9 which underlie the bottom or floor beside the corresponding opening in the latter; the floor being counter sunk from the under side so that the lower faces of tliese flanges will be flush with the under side of the floor. Suitable rivets 10, 10 pass through the floor and the flanges 8 and 9, respectively. The angle irons 4, 4 are cut oif at the ends so as to abut against the-sides of the housings. Similarly, the ver* tical angles 6 are cut offat their lower ends so as to cause them to rest on top of the housings.

vertically between guides 12, 12 on the inner sides of the housing. The yoke has an up-' wardly extending screw-threaded. stem or shaft 13 passing through a nut 14 rotatable in the upper wall of the housing; there being an anti-friction thrust bar 15interposed between a part of the nut and the top wall of the housing. On thelower end of the nut is a bevel gear 16. In the arrangement shown, the antifriction bar lies between this gear and the top wall of the housing. A short shaft 17 extends inwardly from the. exterior of the contaner through the corresponding end wall and into the housing. On the inner end of this shaft is a pinion 18 meshing with the gear wheel The outer end of theshaft 17 is shaped, as m dicated at 19, to receive a crank or other tool for turning the same.

The parts are so proportioned that, when the shaft 17 is turned far enough in'one direction, the container is lowered soas to rest on its own base or bottom, independently of the roller which is then completely enclosed in the housing, as shown in Figs. 7 and 8. When the shaft 17 is turned in the opposite direction, the container, or rather the corresponding corner thereof, is gradually raised, until its weight is transferred to the roller. Therefore, when all of the raising and lowering devices have been operated so as to set the container down on the car top, or other platform, it will rest there just as would any other heavy box-like structure However, when the container is raised at all four corners, it may be rolled about.

In Figs. 9 and 10, there is disclosed a modified raising and lowering device. In this form of our invention, the housing 20 is in the form of a vertical cylinder in which thereis slidable a piston 21 from which depend arms 22, 22 between which the roller is ournalled. In one of the vertical walls, of the housing isa passage 23 leading to a point above the top of the-piston. This passage has an inlet or pipe connection 24 leading to. the exterior of the container.

. If air under pressure is admitted into the cylinder through this inlet and the passage 23, the cylinder will be forced up, relatively to the piston. If the air is admitted to all of the cylinders at onetime, the container will be raised by a single operation or, one cylinder after another may be energlzed so as to raise one corner at a time, either partially or through the full distance. Into the bottom of each cylinder is screwed a ring 25 which will act as a stop to prevent separationof the piston and cylinder so that, whenever a cylinder is raised until the stop engages with the lower end of the piston, further upward movement will be prevented.

g It may be desirable to operate simultane ously all of the raising and lowering devices,-

such as shown in Figs. 7 and 8, for example, or, for some purposes, it may be advantageous to operate two of such devices simultaneously. We have, therefore, shown, more or less diagrammatically in Fig. 12,'m'eans for accomplishing this. I

Referringto Fig. 12, it will be-see'n that the nuts on the screws 13 are provided with worm wheels 30. On each side of the container is a shaft 31 extending lengthwise thereof and provided with worms 31, 31

meshing -with the .corresponding worm shipping container: adapted normally to rest raise and lower all of the corners simultaneously, corresponding ends of the shafts may be connected by a suitable drive, conveniently a sprocket chain drive 33. Therefore, upon turning either shaft from either end, the container will be raised or lowered bodily in a single movement.

We claim:

1. The combination with a shipping con-' tainer in the form of a box adapted normally to rest its bottom wall on any flat supporting surface, of rolling supports therefor, and connecting means between said supports and'the container, including devices to lower the container with respect to the supports and cause it to rest on its. bottom wall or raise it, far enough to cause the said rolling supports alone to rest on the-supporting surface and sustain the weight of the container.

2. The'combination with a shipping container adapted normallyto rest its bottom wall on any flat supporting surface, of rolling supports, connections between said sup? ports and the container, and means for ap-, plying power from points outside of-the container to raise the container high enough' to cause it to be carried by said supports orlowered far enough to cause it to rest on the supporting surface independently of said supports. I

3. The combination with a shipping container adapted normally torest its bottom wall on any flat-sup orting surface, said container having cham, ers opening out through its bottom wall, of rolling supports in said chambers, and means connecting said supports for the container beneath the same, said container having in the bottom individual chambers into which the supports maybe lifted so as to permit the container to rest on its bottom wall independently of said supports, and means to raise saidsupports into said chambers or lower them to causethem to project below the bottom of the container. 7

5. The combination with a rectangular its own bottom wall on a floor or the like, of compact rugged housings fixed in the bottom thereof at the four corners, vertically-adjustable members in said housings, and-rolling supports on the lower ends of said members,

sald housings being deep enough to' permit said members to be adjusted to cause the said rolling supports to be projected below the same and thus raise the container bodily from the floor.

6. The combination with a shipping container adapted normally to rest its-own bottom wall on a floor or the like, of rugged housings fixed to the same in the bottom thereof, horizontal nuts mounted in the upper portions of the housings so as to be rotatable and be held ,against upward movement rela-.

. tively to the housings, means for turning the between container of a length approaching the width of the top of a railway fiat car whereby it may be placed lengthwise across such a car,

the bottom wall of the container being adapted normally to rest on the car, rolling supports for the container, and connecting means between the supports and the container ineluding devices to lower the container thereon until it rests on the car floor independently of'said rolling supports or to raise it high enough with respect to said rolling supports to lift it bodily above the car floor.

8. The combination with a rectangular shipping container, of compact rugged -hous-.

ings fixed in the bottom thereof at the four corners and open at their lower ends, vertically anovable pistons in said. housings, rolling supports underneath and carried by said pistons, said housings being deep'enough to permit said pistons and rolling supports to be confined within the housings or to be projected downwardly and cause the container to be bodily raised from a supporting surface, and means for introducing air into the housings above the pistons.

9. The combination with a rectangular shipping container adapted normally to rest on a floor or other shipping surface, rollingsupportsassociated with said container, and

means to raise the container bodily from the supporting surface and impose its weight. on the; rollingl support's with air cushions located the rolling supports and the container. I

I 10. The combination with a member adapt-' ed to support and convey goods, said member being adapted normally to rest its entire bottom face on any fiat supporting surface, said member having distributed small chambersopening out through the bottom face. thereof,

roller elements in said chambers and adapted to be completely housed therein when said member is resting on its own bottom, and

means in said chambers to raise said member on said elementsso as to cause the latter to project therefromand serve as the supports for said member. In testimony whereof, we sign this specification. 4

GEORGE R. MEYERCORD. OLIN H. BASQUIN. 

